545-547.] The typical New England ship for the slave trade was a sloop, schooner or barkentine of about fifty tons burthen, which when engaged in ordinary freighting would have but a single deck.

For a slaving voyage a second flooring was laid some three feet below the regular deck, the space between forming the slave quarters.

Such a vessel was handled by a captain, two mates, and from three to six men and boys.

It is curious that a vessel of this type, with capacity in the hold for from 100 to 120 hogsheads of rum was reckoned by the Rhode Islanders to be "full bigg for dispatch,"[32] while among the Liverpool slave traders such a ship when offered for sale could not find a purchaser.[33] The reason seems to have been that dry-goods and sundries required much more cargo space for the same value than did rum.
[Footnote 32: Massachusetts Historical Society, _Collections_, LXIX, 524.] [Footnote 33: _Ibid_., 500.] The English vessels were generally twice as great of burthen and with twice the height in their 'tween decks.

But this did not mean that the slaves could stand erect in their quarters except along the center line; for when full cargoes were expected platforms of six or eight feet in width were laid on each side, halving the 'tween deck height and nearly doubling the floor space on which the slaves were to be stowed.